Family hopes High Court ruling will set them free

Natalie O'Brien

SUMANTHI RAHAVAN is hopeful last week's High Court ruling on asylum seekers will mean an end to the indefinite detention that she, her husband and three young children were facing.

The Sri Lankan family, who were chicken farmers before they arrived in 2009, have been in detention at Villawood for two years with no prospect of either being released or relocated to another country.

''My five-year-old son keeps saying to me 'when are going to Australia?' But I say him 'we are already in Australia' and he says 'this [detention facility] is not Australia','' Mrs Rahavan said yesterday.

The Rahavan family are among the 50 cases of asylum seekers found to be genuine refugees but who have been held in indefinite detention because of adverse security assessments by ASIO. The High Court ruled on Friday that even though an asylum seeker had been deemed a security risk, they can still be granted a refugee visa.

The Rahavan's lawyer, Stephen Blanks, said their circumstances are almost a mirror of that same High Court case. Some of the other cases that it is hoped will now be reviewed include a seriously ill man who needs psychiatric care who has also been detained as a security risk.

A lawyer George Newhouse, who has been acting for the mentally ill Sri Lankan man, known as ''Pradeep'', said he is one of the worst cases of mental illness he has ever seen and should be in a mental health facility.

The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, said yesterday the latest High Court ruling on asylum seekers is another complication for a government that is mishandling its border protection policy.